TGS on Tsubokko part 1

Did a little something TGS today~

Japan Trip 2012 Report #2 : TGS Live in Budoukan

TGS Concert Report

While I still remember how was the show, I had be write this down don't I? lol. Like I have mentioned before I personally do not really like the sound system over at Budoukan. I don't know what is the professional term to describe the sound since I'm not an audiophile but what I would have to say is that the instruments are quite loud and the clarity of the sound isn't really there. The sound kind of buzzy or breaks.. I've no idea how to describe this. Anyways, it kind of kills the girls' vocals a little bit. Their vocals wasn't so clear and was kind of clouded by the instrumentals a bit. I find this quite a disappointment since the last time I heard them at Singapore they sounded a whole lot better. Plus the Base Ball Bear event, everyone just sounded brilliant, I had tears in my eyes.

Japan Trip 2012 Report #1 : TGS Live in Budoukan

So I arrived in Japan on the 21st December at 2345, after rushing to get my accommodation all in order it was really exciting to think that, after I woke up the next day, I'll be heading to Budoukan.

On the 22nd morning it was raining and it really freaked me out, since that is like my first ever rain + winter combo in my life (I'm from Malaysia, so I'm not used to Winter).  So I grabbed an umbrella and head to Akiba to meet up with my friend, Hatix. The plan for the day was to meetup with another friend, Tokosilent at Budoukan at around 14:00 so I went to meet up with Hatix at Akiba around noon. We went to Shoshen and I bought a few magazines (BOMB and BLT u-17).Since we had some free time, we went to @home cafe first, being a customary tradition to do when we reach Japan. When we... Naah, I'll write a different report for @home visit XD

So at about 1300 we made our move to Kudanshita station, and reached Budoukan at about 1320. The concert starts at 18:00 but the goods are on sale starting from 12:00. So by far, we're pretty late already. It was still raining when we reached Budoukan and we saw many people walking to the opposite direction that we're going while carrying TGS Budoukan bag. I figured they might have bought all the goods already and just heading home until the concert starts. So me and Hatix just went to the goods area and saw the long line for goods. Honestly speaking, long line in Japan is nothing new to me already, but this is the first with everyone holding an umbrella. I have quite a lot to buy in my list and that includes what a few friends asked me to get for them.

Kaorin is back~

Hayano Kaoru (早乃香織) a.k.a Kaorin is back in the singing industry! No more MC-ing and doing radio show only for her now, its back to business.  Since today is her birthday, she's starting her blog once again (it was taken down earlier this year, to make her debut a secret I guess) and made her first post today.

To those who are not familiar with Kaorin

She was an ex-AKB48 member from team K and graduated from the group. During that time she's probably the smartest girl in the group academically, judging from the various surveys done in the AKB48 guidebook released then. Initially, she was the one that dragged me into AKB48 fandom and for a while I was stuck with the group thanks to her. She's quite witty, a little bit shy and awkward and a huge otaku to boot. Seems to be a huge fan of Evangelion as well. She graduated from the group for some unmentioned reason and was happily pursuing job as assistant MC on various events and radio show. Now she's back in the idol industry again. So starting from today I'll be translating her blog as well, now that it has really gotten into track again ^^ http://enhayanokaoru.blogspot.com/

Below is the preview PV of her 2nd single, Betelgeuse Beat

Umeko on ASCII

I'm sure that not many people saw this coming but Umeko is getting featured in the weekly ASCII this week. Well it's kind of exciting because she hardly appears for shots like this alone, afterall she's not really the prettiest girl in the group nor a girl whom one would easily fall to. I really like the fact that they made her cosplay a whole bunch of theme and it ranged from Goth Loli to just tradition kimono and looking and her facial expression in each picture is entertaining (lol). Well let's just say she's not much of a model... and imitating Serina for the GothLoli costume is just freaking brilliant hahaha

Idoling!!! and Randomness

One of the really big charms of idoling!!! definitely has to be the random factor that they have. I believe this is the only idol group that has been talking so much to each other about which one of them is an orthodox idol or not. Everyone just have their own quirks that made keeping up with the show is such a joy. The TV show is already at episode 940 now! I have watched nearly every single one of them and still I find this group enjoyable. The group has such a colourful cast of members, the divas, the jokers, the quiet ones, the bizzare ones and simply the annoying ones but then again once they are all together it's all good. The staff of the show is just as if not more random than the girls too. I have to tip my hat off to the staff for always venturing into ideas that you don't normally go to nearly all the time.

An Idol show is normally very similar. A lot of beautiful girls, a funny MC and they play games/ experience doing something and go through some punishment game. The games played are normally very common among Japanese Variety show, and you can basically find them anywhere on the TV.

Idoling!!! staff always go ahead with bizzare ideas. An episode on the girls kicking the Assistant Director, an episode on the girls learning to Capoeira, an episode of girls riding a unicycle while avoiding the staffs which are sleeping on the floor, catching eels and a whole lot more bizzareness. It really keeps the show fresh and makes it always exciting to catch the next upcoming episode. Of course there are time when it is quite obvious that they are just recycling old segments a few times but the moment that idea block is over, Idoling!!! simply shines. For this reason alone, I won't be dropping this group anytime soon. No other idol group has a better teamwork between the Idol and the staff compared to this one IMO. It's so random that it is refreshing.

"Malaysian Fans~" They said~

During the TGS UStream broadcast at 2012-11-10 something really unexpected happened. I was feeling kind of down that day because I'm really short of money and I could not go to Singapore to watch BABYMETAL at AFA. Furthermore I missed the chance to meet Endou Mai who also came to Singapore for a single day to co-MC IENOMI with TM Revolution from Singapore. While feeling all messed up and everything, my internet was really slow that when I watched the TGS UST I had no visual at all, it was only sound but then something really awesome happened.

It just so happened that a friend of mine asked about how to get the handsign in UST channel in English and suddenly the staff of TGS replied to him in English too. Seeing the reaction everyone started to as a little bit of question in English to the staff too. When people realized this, a lot of the foreign fans started to comment in English too and by the anyone realized it, it was swarmed with English already. Fans from Malaysia, France, Philipine, Singapore and many others were have a real good time that day. Then suddenly the staff replied to my friend's request because he wanted to see Miyu (since the camera was static and only Hitomi, Yuri and Mei was on camera) and he made the girl say hi to us Malaysian fans

Jejak Jepun Bersama Zizan (Exploring Japan with Zizan)

The other big thing that happened this year would be this show "Jejak Jepun Bersama Zizan". Zizan is a well known comedian in Malaysia and apparently he's in love with Japan too. In this show, he was sponsored by a Malaysia airlines (AirAsia) to go around Japan to complete a single mission which is to meet Ayumi Hamasaki.

I'm a huge fan of a maid cafe called @home cafe in akihabara and one day a maid posted information about Zizan visiting the cafe and they did a recording of him being in the cafe so I was pretty excited to see the maid that I know appearing on Malaysian TV but a few days after that TGS posted information that they are appearing on the show with Zizan as well. When the trailer came out, we were all very excited because Onnaji Kimochi is the theme song and we're listening to it on Malaysian TV. However that was only the tip of the iceberg... As the show goes along, the whole show from the 1st episode to the 6th episode (last episode) the OST was nothing but TGS song. The excitement from waiting every episode and wondering which song is going to be used in the upcoming episode was just amazing. It was pretty nostalgic too since I have abandoned TV for a very long time and it has been a while since I'm so excited about a show that I waited a few minutes before the show in front of the TV.

TGS of course only appeared in episode 5, and Zizan is a jerk for not allowing the girls to self introduce themselves (but he's a good jerk for promoting them~ hahaha) and I'd love to hear the girls talk more or at least more scene of Zizan teaching them to speak Malay or something along that line.

Coincidentally, TGS came to Singapore a week before the broadcast of episode 5. Had the pleasure of talking to them about it at the live.

The aftermath of the show was many people in Malaysia are starting to know TGS. Suddenly, Malaysian audience are commenting on TGS's Onnaji Kimochi official PV at youtube talking about how they reached that page because of Zizan. And a few videos of kids dancing to Onnaji Kimochi.

This much exposure has definitely left some impact on the audience and though I do not want to assume that the show has made Malaysians as TGS fan but I'd say it has made TGS known. I believe that is a great first step. Unlike MCZ visit to Malaysia the impact was only to those who came to the event. There was hardly any real publicity to let the masses know about their arrival and there are no recording or showing of the live either to really rile up the nation. While MCZ has re-ignited the flame inside many old wotas, TGS has spark an interest of the nation towards J-Idol.

I'm not going to say that the show popularity has already warrant TGS a huge audience if they were ever to do a live here, but I'm sure that with a little bit of help from Zizan and a few other publicity it'll all work out well. Plus Singapore and Indonesia wotas are very active in supporting any idols that drop by around this vicinity as well. It should all be good.

Now I really hope that all these events just would prompt more visits towards ASEAN countries. If that's the case then... I'm sure we can overcome this Halyu wave.

Momoiro Clover Z in Malaysia, the start of 2012 hype

This was at Putrajaya Kuala Lumpur, and whee I'm on TV~

I'm an active member of the Malaysian wota community called Xmorfis.info and up until last year, the group's flame has been slowly waning as one by one of the members has jumped ship into the korean wave. We're a pretty old in group in Malaysia too, some members are even getting married and paying attention to J-idols all together but this year was different. I'd say this year is the year of change and the one that started to re-paint the scenario over here would be none other than Momoiro Clover Z.

When it was first announced that they are coming as part of the Hari Belia Negara (National Youth Day) we all thought it was just a joke but when it was officially announced and the article on Natalie and Tokyohive appeared everyone was more than excited. This was the 1st J-idol to ever perform in Malaysia, it was a pretty historical event for us.

Honestly, I never watched any MCZ concert prior to that live, I love Akari and when she graduated my interest in the group turned a bit sour until Roudou Sanka came along. Being there at the live was just amazing. While I am aware of the very different situation of idol live (well Idoling!!! and TGS audience would be pretty mild when it comes to their live) this was the first time I'm in an idol live with very active audience and with me right there at the very front of the railings. It was just so wild, all the chantings still echoes in my mind even until today. This would've never been possible if the Japanese mononofu didn't come over. The energy behind the show that day was just something that I never experienced before. When I was at Shimokita FM idol festival in 2010 the audience was pretty crazy too but I was not in the middle of that crowd so it was kind of different.

While the show was all fun and good, the more important part of the show to me is the gathering of almost all Xmorfis members. Right after the show, a lot of them has started to hop over to the J-wave or at the very least starts to follow J-idol again. Out of a sudden the group has a new faction appearing, the marenofu (Malaysia mononofu). Some non idol fans were also converted into one on that day. The day MCZ came to Malaysia was definitely the day a lot of things started to change, we're all very grateful for it.

Idoling!!! 829 DJ RuKaede!!!

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and... NO they're not going to let you go that easily

About this episode

They basically gave free reign over to Ruka and Kaede to host their own talk show where they can ask any questions that they want. It was basically a traumatizing experience to all the other members.

This episode could easily be one of my favorite, first of all RuKaede really did not hold back at all with their question and then they handled every answer really well. From uninspiring ones like Yuuna's to the angry one like Umeko's and it is all so funny. But the best of all just had to be how Masuno pulling the strings to guide RuKaede on what to do next. Just the look on his face how he enjoyed looking at the girls in trouble is just... eeevil XD

# credit to Code001 for QC

Idoling!!! #828 Ami Ta--lk!!!

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If you don't want your food then don't waste it~

There we go~ good old Idoling!!! sub after a really long absence. I'm sure those who follow the forum over at JPH!P would've gotten this sub already but it is just an obligatory post XD

About this episode,

Well this is just an obligatory episode to sub, simply because it features so much Umeko and it is just too funny to ignore. The whole bento talk was a lot of fun and it basically just screams out "Idoling!!!" more than ever because you hardly see any idols talk about this kind of topic this openly on TV. It does make one wonders too, just how much does an idol earn anyways or could it be that living standard in Tokyo is just too freaking high. Anyways, everyone is just adorable when talking about how happy they are getting free food, and Masuno's tsukkomi on the Dragonball reference was just golden.

The second part of the segment is just okay to me, because well, Asahi is Asahi and she is just full of joy all the time. Nothing really surprising in this segment.

# credits to Code001 for QC.

Tokyo Girls' Style in Singapore

On the 5th-6th of October TGS came over to Singapore to perform during a Japan Travel Fest at Takashimaya, Orchad Road Singapore.

I was really taken by surprise because a week before that I already went to Johor (which is just next to Singapore) and now in less than 5 days a sudden announcement was made and they are going to be in Singapore. I seriously thought that it was just a rumour but after a few hours it came up on the official site and I know that I had to go. Took another day off from work and headed over to Singapore

The live was for 2 days and I managed to go to both of them.

That feeling when your favorite member waves at you... Priceless

The months that was...

I'm really sorry for not updating the blog for a very long time, between work and the bunch of surprises this year, I've totally lost track of time and focus to keep up with everything that I'm supposed to do.

So as of today, I'm back to blogging. Will be updating every little news and reports that I have in store worth of the missing post that I have skipped~!

Idoling!!! - 20120119 #827 Saraba Yazawa

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There you go~ Finally a new Idoling!!! update~

Momoiro Clover Z - Shabekuri 007 2012

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Show link
http://www.mediafire.com/?3hs5l5chxv1c7

This episode is kinda too random, a bit hard to translate (wahaha take that for underestimating other TVshows) so there might be errors here and there I guess. But that's about it for MCZ for now, going to head back to Idoling!!!~

Momoiro Clover - Shabekuri 007 2011~

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Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

My current PC is basically dead for now... Goes along with many files which I owned.. Oh well... Got on this temporary PC during this 2 weeks holiday and decided to sub MomoKuro's on Shabekuri 007 and it was such a news to me... subbing other variety shows is much easier than subbing Idoling!!! =_=. I guess subbing Idoling!!! made other shows feels much easier. hahaha.

edit : ouch just saw a huge mistake in translation =_=. A-rin's introduction mention about being brown eyed. missed that completely OTL

The little victories - Idoling Youtube Channel

I know that this has been pretty late to post about it but it deserve its own post anyways.

FujiTV has finally move out into the streaming channels already and with it Idoling is given their own Youtube channel to spread the love all around the world. A few years back, the international fans has been making a move to request for a more open access to Idoling!!! but we never heard of any news of it for a long time. Idoling!!! show is just different from the other idols because of On Demand. Sometimes the majority of fun lies in the On Demand segment, in fact Asahi is probably the Queen of On Demand, poor Asahi fans if they can't watch the On Demand version of it. However for as long as FujiTV not giving access to On Demand to the foreigners we're still deprived from it. But I guess opening up old episodes and new series of daily & weekly Idoling!!! is pretty cool. The Daily Idoling!!! is short and sweet (uploaded on the weekdays) the weekly is... well Idoling!!! can go really random. It'll be much much easier to promote idoling now that there is this channel because some idol fans are fans of "songs", so PV would do great to promote to them.

All in all it all still comes down to one more problem about Idoling!!!, language barrier. While it true that their songs are getting much better now, still the real charm of the group is the TV show. For as long as people are not trying to watch their TV show / no subs by FujiTV (which I think... is a really far fetched dream) Growing idoling fanbase oversea will be quite slow.

The rate of the show being released is really fast, unlike other groups which usually have 1 show per week, this one is 5 per 2 weeks.

I only hope I had more time to sit down and commit to subbing.

Idoling!!! 826

Notes:
-Its been ages since I did an update, been really really busy lately. Will try to score 827 as fast as I can because next week is another superbly busy week =_=

Idoling!!! + Wotagei

Well on a normal basis, you don't really see this but this is a pretty interesting take. I gotta say that the penlights make really nice effect on the moves and the execution is pretty sharp too. I should get myself a few penlights and try to do this.

Screen cap of the day

this... is.... AYANO!!!

Tokyo Joshi Ryuu's Latest PV~!

The PV is finally out~! Well lately military fashion PV is kind of famous so there's nothing much to say about that. But the Purple costume is freaking cute! Ayano is epicly cute as always too. The song itself is fun to hear and chant along with. I'm pretty sure its going to be a concert staple real soon.

Idoling 725

Idoling!!! - 2011.03.07 #725
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notes :

Life is getting a bit messy lately, can't really sit down and sub an episode. Learnt quite some words here, Rougai. XD

Next up are the graduation episodes!

Oh no

I've been repeating this episode for the Nth number of time already. It is still very awesome at just how much entertaining can Idoling!!! members get given the opportunity to talk. Definitely will work on this episode in the future

Bakkyun!!!

BOMBTASTIC!

Bakkyun is just superbly well done in lives! I just love how much Suu-chan is enjoying a live show and improvising her songs as she goes along. Hii-chan's solo is adorable! Normally she is shadowed by Rumi's shadow because she kept getting Rumi's part in old songs for her solo and now finally a solo for her specifically and it is freaking cute! There's no way to hate this song, it's just good.

Umeko Blog Translation project~

Well since I need to read more, might as well just do this. This would be a really good kanji practise too. Though I'm not sure just how much can I improve from this, but something is better than nothing I guess.

And I really have no talent for naming things =_=

Umeko Blog Translation

Doing the impossible

Subbing all idoling shows are definitely impossible to be done alone. Plus my ISP isn't that good to begin with and I do miss episodes every now and then for quite some time and when I realized it I'm behind 10++ episodes with the current running one. So I'm going ahead with skipping certain episodes and just do whichever episode that I like and of course according to certain votes too. In memories of Yazawa and Fonchi, their graduation episode are definitely a must episode to be worked on.

So those two episodes are next.

TGS18 / Rock You

I think I'm already sealed as a TGS fan already. I went to their concert on the 24th December 2011, that was a whole load of fun and their songs are just real cool. Though I still cannot like songs like Gambatte Itsudatte, their other rosters of songs are good enough to flood my interest. As of today, what really matters is waiting for the release of the PV of this song~

Idoling 648

Idoling!!! - 2010.07.13 #648
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Rants~
Awesome episode to sub, though there did sumo many times before this already but never with such drama. The tears, the sweat and the awesome throws just sealed this episode as epic and unforgettable. Plus now with Fonchi no longer in the group, I think that Sakacchi will be reigning supreme unchallenged.

All in all a very great episode. One more sumo episode to sub next.

Idoling 799

Idoling!!! - 2011.10.12 #799 
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Alright here we go, 799 done. A little bit messy of a subbing this time around.

• Too many cross talking
• Whispers and unclear words
• Too much play on words

But I guess, its okay this time around. Masuno is just messing around with the girls non-stop. But it is that quality that made him awesome. I used to like AKB before but I could never get into Bad Boys. Takada Junji was a lot of fun but his appearance was short lived. Masuno might be acting that he has a barrier and stuff with Idoling!!! but any Daiba no Koi Monogatari would definitely tell you otherwise. Lately him beating the hell out of Umeko was also a show just how close he is to the girls. It is so awesome, Idoling!!! I can't never get enough of them

I really need to learn....

to save my file when I can't work on it anymore... I lost my translation again due to blackouts...

Meeting Umeko, Serina and Hii-chan, part 1

So last december I was in Japan,and I was really hoping for a countdown live which i never got. However the trip was not for naught when i saw the announcement for the handshake event for 24th and 25th December. Since i just arrived on the 23rd and already had plans for the 24th, I skipped the event that day (had to bring my friends around in Tokyo and there's a TGS on the 24th in the evening)On the 25th morning, i headed out to Odaiba and met a fellow idolinger Hellguard just outside Wangan Studio. It was freaking cold and I'm still not used to winter.

There was a whole bunch of people lining up outside and there was a counter where you write down your pre-order list of MAMORE. Hellguard helped me by allowing me to use his address for the PO and i got myself 3 copies, 2 for the 1st session and 1 for the 2nd session. Since i arrived pretty late, Hellguard ushered me in first because the 1st session was going to end soon.

I kind of entered through the wrong entrance and was basically freaking out coz man, I'm about to handshake with Umeko! I mean like, this is my first handshake event ever and I've been having her as a favorite for about 3 years plus already and now is the time to finally meet the real deal! On the night before that, I prepared 2 letters and a drawing for her. Cause normally from what i heard you don't really get a long time to talk with the girl during a handshake and a letter would do the trick to explain more things, and its basically just 1 letter since one is in english and the other is in japanese, translating the other.

So there I was standing in line, waiting for my first turn to meet her. I originally planned to go and greet her in English just for a reaction sake and to confirm myself as a non-japanese, but none of that came to light when the staff took my ticket and ushered me into the booth. She is really pretty... A whole thinner than you see on TV too... So i was readying myself to say 'hi there umeko' in English but she said 'arigatou gozaimasu to me first! That kind of taken my tempo away for a while and then i shook her hands and realized i dont want to speak to her in English because that would be a waste of time, better for me to just get the message through. So i told her that I came all the way from Malaysia to meet her and to my surprise she said that she had been to Malaysia before. Apparently during her school trip they went to both Malaysia and Singapore. And then it hit me thats why she said Malaysia was her favorite country during one of helf self into back then. Umeko was really awesome, she talks really kind to everyone and when i realised just how lucky i am to meet the girl I kind of felt touched that my eyes are getting a bit wet and i just wanted to wipe my eyes and then she screamed 'please don't cry!' that was cute as hell and then the staff wanted to push me away so i handed her my 2 letters before i left.

Then i went to line up for the 2nd handshake, when I got into the booth she greeted me 'hi again' and that totally made my day at that moment. so i gave her my drawing inside an envelopt and i told her that i was the guy in the youtube video that the staff showed her 2 years ago and before i know it the was already pushing me away.

Me and hellguard went to the convenience store after that had some lunch while waiting for the next session. I was already in cloud9 since this is like the peak of my fanboy days, to finally meet her for the first time. On the 2nd session thebplan was to go and meet Serina.

Since i already have the experience, this i went through the correct gate XD, Serina's line had so few people it was.a breeze getting into the line. Since i was too nervous meeting Umeko, I thought, let's play the foreigner act with Serina. Staff took my ticket, and i said to her 'hello there Serina' Her eyes light up and you can see her panic mode triggered. She went like 'thank you thank you! but I cant speak english.... Sorry sorry...' That was freaking cute so i didn't have the heart to bully the kid so i told her that i can speak japanese actually so dont worry. She asked me where did i come from, i told her i'm from Malaysia and then the staff pushed me out. what really surprised me was, as i was going out from the booth, she was waving me goodbye and when i was out from her line of sight she actually poked her head out to see me off and then she said 'I love you!' in English. I was whoa! girl, you intend to give me heart attack or something. That was really nice of her.

So i went outside to meet with Hellguard who came back from seeing Ruka,apparently Umeko was talking to the other members about me during the interval between the sessions. So when Hellguard when to see Ruka she thought that Hellguard was me (coincidetally, both of us are from Malaysia. had no idea about this before i met him in person) Then hellguard gave me a ticket and insisted on me taking it.

I had no idea who to go to after that so i decided to go and see Hii-chan. Hii had even less people than serina. Since i had no idea what to talk about, i dedicated this one for fellow friend Suzukiryo. She was extremely delighted to know that she has a fan in Indonesia and that made me happy too because she looked so tired before that and when she light up with a smile that was awesome.

Idoling!!! 792 Sub

Idoling!!! 792 (soft Sub)
Idoling!!! #792

This is the first OO na Riyuu series and nothing better than to start it off with Umeko! The whole show is pretty easy to be understood except for the Kikuchi Hii-chan talk right in the middle of it which I have absolutely no idea at all what does it mean.

Personally this one is an okay show, and its a good segment. As long as they don't do too much of questioning to Masuno and more to the members, it'll be really great.

* intends to release another sub soon. Hopefully nothing to disturb me m(_ _)m sorry for the long absence